Feds are hunting the hacker of Bush family's emails

By Stewart M. Powelland Alison Sullivan

Updated 12:35 am, Saturday, February 9, 2013

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Secret Service has launched a wide-ranging investigation into a security breach that enabled an elusive hacker to read emails exchanged by members of the Bush family over a three-year period.

The emails revealed confidential home addresses, cell phone numbers and preliminary preparations for the funeral of former President George H.W. Bush.

The stolen emails included one providing CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz the home address and gate security code for the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush and another alerting the five children of George H.W. Bush that “your Dad's funeral team is having an emergency meeting at 10 a.m. just to go through all the details” in the event that the then-hospitalized former chief executive died.

U.S. Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie told the Hearst newspapers that an investigation was under way by the federal agency responsible for protecting the president and former presidents.

“We are investigating the incident,” Ogilvie said. “Beyond that, I can't get into anything else.”

Ogilvie declined to discuss whether the FBI or other federal law enforcement agencies that focus on cyber security had joined the high-profile investigation. As for a timetable, the agency had “nothing like that,” Ogilvie said.

A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which routinely investigates breaches of Internet security, said all inquiries regarding the case were being handled by the Secret Service.

The official declined to discuss any role by the bureau.

FBI agents played a leading role in the recent investigation into suspicious email traffic between then-CIA Director David Petraeus and his biographer, Paula Broadwell, co-author of “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.” The investigation revealed an extramarital relationship between Petraeus and Broadwell that led to the retired four-star general resigning his CIA post.

The hacker apparently broke into at least six email accounts, including the AOL account of Dorothy “Doro” Bush Koch, the daughter of George H.W. Bush and sister of George W. Bush.

Rep. Randy Weber, R-Alvin, said: “Unfortunately, there are those who mean ill-will to decent, honest, hardworking Americans. My heart goes out to the Bush family over this invasion of their privacy.”

Langevin said he was “troubled, but not surprised, to learn of this incident involving the Bush family, and I hope it serves as a reminder to everyone to take every precaution they can to protect their sensitive information online.”

The Bush family emails were first disclosed by an online website, the Smoking Gun, in an extended account titled “Audacious Hack Exposes Bush Family Pix, E-Mail.”

The report said private Bush family photos and emails had been uploaded to an online account “that appears to have been hacked for the purpose of posting the material.”

The posted photographs and emails included the hacker's online moniker, “Guccifer.”

The email traffic from 2009 to 2012 provided intimate, behind-the-scenes detail on the health of former President George H.W. Bush during seven weeks of hospitalization at Houston's Methodist Hospital for treatment of bronchitis, a bacterial infection and a persistent cough.

Neil Bush circulated a “Report on Dad” on Nov. 28 that described the illness and prospects for recovery by his father.

Another son, Jeb Bush, a former governor of Florida and potential GOP presidential candidate in 2016, praised his father's “kindness and good nature” for helping former President Bill Clinton “restore his sordid reputation,” according to the Smoking Gun account.

Jean Becker, serving as chief of staff to the former president, advised his children in late December that the former president's funeral team was convening an emergency meeting to review details for prospective arrangements for the 88-year-old former chief executive.

Becker said the alert “fell under the broadening category of things NOT TO TELL YOUR MOTHER.”

Former President George W. Bush, 66, wrote his two brothers and sister, on Dec. 26 to say that he was “thinking about (the) eulogy” for their father.

“Hopefully I'm jumping the gun,” the former two-term president told his siblings. “But since the feeling is that you all would rather me speak than bubba, please help.”

“Bubba” appeared to be Bush's reference to Clinton, a Democrat who joined forces with the senior Bush on multiple occasions in recent years for humanitarian causes such as international aid to Haiti after an earthquake and Indonesia after a tsunami.

The email breach was expected to provoke congressional hearings and potentially proposals for additional legislation.